Marimo Fruit
by Lieju
Summary: Zoro accidentally eats a Devil's Fruit. But what powers did this particular fruit give to it's eater?


A water dripping Zoro was sitting on the deck of Going Merry. His six crew members were standing around him, their faces revealing different feelings, varying from Robin's quiet amusement to Chopper's professional concern.

Zoro listed in his mind all the bad things that had happened to him today, in case he could blame Ero-cook for some of them:

-First, they had to go on that stupid deserted island, that didn't even have a magnetic field, to find food supplies.

-Then he had gotten lost. And the island was full of blood-sucking little insects, that had bitten him in all the hard-to-scratch places they could find.

-Taking a bite of that weird-looking fruit had been a bad idea. It had tasted like crap.

-Falling in the ocean and almost drowning, because his body had become a hammer (thanks to the crappy fruit), hadn't exactly been a pleasant experience either, but the worst part of it was that it just had to be Mr. Crazy Eyebrow who had dived after Zoro and saved him.

-And yeah, they were out of beer too.

Usopp was the one to break the silence:

"So, what can you do?"

Now they were waiting for him to say something.

"I don't know."

"Maybe you can make meat appear from nowhere?"

Zoro looked at his captain. "No, I can't."

"Have you tried?"

"No."

"Then how can you be sure?"

Zoro was going to say something, but decided that the best way to end the argument was to close his eyes and concentrate instead.

Silence.

But, much to Luffy's disappointment, no meat (or anything else for that matter) materialized from thin air.

"Maybe it was the Marimo Marimo fruit? In that case we wouldn't see any change." Zoro shot a look at the cook, who was clearly enjoying the swordsman's situation.  
Sanji flashed a faked innocent smile at the scowling Zoro. "What? I was just trying to be helpful."

"Luffy, how did you find about your Devil's Fruit powers?"

The rubberman turned to answer his navigator's question: "I don't know, I just did."

The orange-haired girl realized that no useful information could be obtained from that source, and turned to the other female member of the crew:

"Robin, do you know anything about this? How could we found out what powers he has?"

"I am aware of attempts to make lists that would allow to recognize the known Devil's Fruits, but they are far from complete. I think the best thing to do is just wait Swordsman-san's powers to manifest themselves."

"I have heard some Devil's Fruits only take effect in certain conditions", Nami said.

Robin nodded."That is true."

Usopp cleared his throat.

"On my journeys across the East Blue I once met a man, who had eaten a Devil's Fruit, but apparently hadn't gained any special powers. But, unknown to him, every time he got the hiccups, a monstrous tornado appeared on the other side of the ocean, and caused horrible destruction on a little village called Puppu. I was the only one who saw the connection between these two things."

Chopper was impressed:"Wow, really? What did you do then?"

Chopper and Luffy started to listen to Usopp's story about how he saved the Puppulians, and in the process invented a cure for hiccup, reunited two long-lost brothers, and slew a dragon with a kitchen knife.

Robin and Nami left to do their own things, the latter muttering something about logbooks.

Zoro looked at the only crew member, who had stayed.

The blonde smirked.

"Don't worry, Marimo. When you fall in the water, I will save your ass. Again."

Robin lifted her eyes from the book she was reading, and smiled to herself, while growing a hand from the deck to remove one of her books from the path of the laughing chef and the angry swordsman who was at his heels.

* * *

Sanji stopped in the doorway. Something was wrong with his kitchen. The door of the cupboard where he kept the spices was slightly ajar. The chef opened the door, and made a quick inventory to find out what was missing. 

He snorted. Maybe it was Usopp again, he had taken stuff for his weapon experiments without permission from the kitchen before.

Sanji opened the door, and stepped on the deck, planning to find the sharpshooter, but noticed it wasn't necessary. The missing pepper mill was in Luffy's hand. The black-haired kid was holding it over the snoring swordsman's face. Chopper was watching them with a mixed expression of nervousness and expectation on his furry face.

Luffy sprinkled pepper on Zoro's face.

"BLGRAHH!" The sworsman's powerful sneeze surprised Luffy, who fell backwards, and startled Chopper, who jumped behind the mast.

The swordsman roared:"What the hell was that supposed to be!?", and sneezed again.

Luffy looked disappointed."We wanted to see what would happen, of course!" He turned to the reindeer. "Oi, Chopper! Did you see anything out of the ordinary happen?"

The doctor shook his head, but looked thoughtful: "But maybe something _did _happen, just not here." His eyes widened. "What if he caused a tornado or an earthquake or a tsunami or something like that on the other side of the world?"

Luffy pouted: "But I wanted to see it!" He turned to Zoro. "If sneezing doesn't work, maybe something else will. Hey, Zoro, burp!"

* * *

Zoro was sitting in the crow's nest. Finally he got a moment of peace and quiet. Luffy had bugged Zoro all day. Since sneezing hadn't let him see the swordsman's powers, the rubberboy had tried several other stimuli, including hot tea, tickling, and cucumbers. Zoro didn't even want to speculate what kind of powers could be activated by hitting the person in the head with a vegetable. 

_The thirst. I can't smell the treasure anymore._

Zoro looked around. What was that? He didn't see anyone. Had that voice been just his imagination?

_It has been taken away. _

This time he was certain of it. He had heard something. Or not _heard_, exactly, more like the voice echoed inside his mind.

Was he loosing it? Or was this because of his Devil's Fruit? In that case he had to find out who or what this voice belonged to. Maybe he should try to talk to it. So, feeling a bit ridiculous he formed the words in his mind:

_Who are you? What has been taken away? _

The answer came. _That which we seek. The thirst. We have to find the treasure. He took it away._

Zoro looked around, but couldn't find anyone. Whose voice was he hearing? Were there some invisible people on the Merry? Invisible people, who by the sound of it were obsessed with drinking.

* * *

"What are you doing, shitty swordsman?" 

Zoro looked up to see the chef's angry face. If Zoro would have been a different kind of man he could have blushed. But since he was Zoro, he reacted with a stern gaze to the fact that he had been caught going through Nami's clothes. He had been certain, that a voice had come from the closet, talking about food.

"Looking for beer." Zoro cursed in his mind the fact that he wasn't exactly a convincing liar. "What did you imagine in your dirty Ero-cook's mind?"

The blonde shot a disbelieving look at the other man: "Why would Nami-san hide beer in her closet?"

Luffy's yell "Sanji! When the food is ready!?", distracted the cook, and spared Zoro from making up an answer.

He followed the cook to the deck, where they had decided to eat tonight, lanterns giving light in the darkening night.

_Light. Pretty. Light._

Zoro frowned. Great. Here were the voices again. It sounded like there were more then one creature whose voice he heard. This one felt different from the "Drinker" and the

"The-creep-who-hides-in-a-closet", like he had decided to call the voices.

Zoro was trying to enjoy the meal, and ignore the voices, that muttered:

_Light. Pretty. Light. _Again and again.

Suddenly the voice in his head turned into a cry of pain, making Zoro flinch. And then it was gone.

He lifted his gaze, and met the eyes of the archeologist. Had she noticed something? Zoro decided he wasn't going to say anything, and returned the gaze of the eyes, that didn't reveal anything.

Then by the corner of his eye, he saw a rubberhand on his plate, trying to snatch some of Zoro's food while he was distracted. That broke the staring contest between Zoro and Robin, and after some yelling and food-throwing the dinner was resumed.

* * *

Zoro was standing on the deck, determined to find out this time who or what caused the voices. The others were still sleeping, so he had a chance of locating the source of his troubles in peace. He thought about telling his crewmates about them, but admitting someone you heard voices in your head was not exactly something he wanted to do. Not before he found out what was going on, anyway. 

Here was the drinking-obsessed voice again. Zoro closed his eyes and concentrated.

_Who are you? _, he asked.

_I am thirsty. He took it away. Will you give it to me?_

Zoro had no idea what the voice was talking about, but he answered nevertheless.

_I will. Where are you?_

_Help! I'm stuck. Stuck._

Zoro looked around, but didn't still see anyone. "Where are you?", he asked aloud.

"I wonder who you are talking to, Swordsman-san."

Zoro turned to the archeologist. First the cook, and now her had succesfully caught him unaware. Those voices were really getting on him. He decided to tell the truth.

"I heard a voice. It seemed to be in trouble."

The woman raised her eyebrow. "Would this happen to have something to do with the Devil's Fruit you ate?"

"Maybe. But we have to find the voice. It's saying in my head that it's trapped."

Robin used her power to grow eyes around the deck.

"Could it by any chance be that?", she pointed the spider's web on the corner. In it was a little creature, tangled in a deadly trap.

No way. It couldn't be... But Zoro reached his hand for it, and freed the little creature anyway. The insect flapped it's wings. Zoro heard the voice in his mind again, and this time he knew where it came from:

_Thank you._

* * *

"You can talk to butterflies?" 

Zoro tried to maintain at least some of his dignity. He answered the navigator, trying not to look at the chuckling cook. "Yes, and apparently to moths as well."

"Actually, Swordsman-san, the division of Lepidopterans into moths and butterflies is a popular taxonomy, not a scientific one."

"Who cares, they are all just a bunch of bugs.", Zoro looked at the butterfly who happily drank nectar from a flower. Robin had told him it's scientific name, but Zoro thought, that "Drinker" was far more appropriate. The treasure it had been looking for had turned out to be the bouquet of flowers Sanji had picked for Nami and brought inside.

"Just a bunch of bugs? Are you sure your _friends _will not be offended, when you call them like that?", the cook asked, not even trying to hide his amusement.

"I think it's cool! Even I can't talk to the insects", Chopper interrupted, trying to stop the argument, before it even fully started.

But failing miserably.

* * *

It had been almost a week since he had eaten the fruit, and he had to admit, that he was getting better at controlling this power. While Zoro hadn't found a way to completely shut the voices out, they no longer were as annoying. The chef missed no opportunity to remind him just how _cute _his power was, but the swordsman had found a way to get back at him. 

"Oi, Marimo, you still have your job to do. Don't even think of letting Nami-san down", the cook was a bit surprised, that the other man didn't protest, but just left towards the afterdeck. Zoro smirked to himself. He wondered when Ero-cook would find out that moth larvae had eaten his favourite tie.

Actually, it didn't surprise Zoro, that Nami had found a way to make money even with this weird power. What he wasn't quite certain, however, was just how she had got him to co-operate. When exactly he had become debted again? The swordsman started to realize that he was never going to be free of her clutches. Zoro wasn't too good with the math, but apparently the debt would never completely disappear despite her always promising she would forgive part of them if he helped her, since the interest made it bigger all the time.

Talk of the devil. "Zoro, here they are". She handed a small box to Zoro.

The said butterfly whisperer took a look at the hairless brown caterpillars, which, not surprisingly, were talking about eating.

"You better take good care of them. You have no idea how much I had to pay for these! But it will be worth it, when you find a way to breed them in captivity. Since the silk these bugs make is the finest in the world, that information is priceless. Well then, I must be going now. Have fun!"

And with those words the navigator left Zoro alone with his new responsibilities.

_Food. Food. Food._

Great.

* * *

**Author's note:** Zoro strikes me as a guy, whose sneezing sounds like "BLGRAHH!". No doubt about it. 


End file.
